Bloomberg running all three as W-CDMA now that DJ is rehashing. Almost comical:
Korean Mobile Phone Companies Choose W-CDMA, Reject Qualcomm
By Ian King
Seoul, July 7 (Bloomberg) -- Korea's three mobile phone service operators -- Korea Telecom Corp. through its two cellular affiliates, SK Telecom Co. and LG Telecom Co. -- will use wideband code division multiple access for new cell phone networks, turning their backs on Qualcomm Inc.'s technology.
If awarded licenses to provide new services allowing faster wireless access to the Internet and advanced functions such as mobile video conferencing, the service providers will build their systems using W-CDMA, which they consider more likely to be adopted in other countries as well, the companies said.
``We looked at all of the trends and judged that both China and major Japanese mobile companies will choose W-CDMA,'' said Lee Hang Soo, a spokesman for SK Telecom, Korea's largest cellular service provider. ``When you look at the Korean market you cannot avoid considering what's going on in China and Japan.''
Choosing a system compatible with other countries' networks allows phone users to take advantage of what's called roaming, the ability to use the same handset on other networks in other countries.
Their decision could come as another blow to Qualcomm in its largest market. All 26 million of Korea's mobile users are hooked up via CDMA cellular phones. Qualcomm technology accounts for about 20 percent of the world cell phone market, with around 60 million users worldwide.
Qualcomm's Korean sales have already been hurt by a government ruling that stopped service providers from offering discount handsets starting June 1. The end of so-called handset subsidies has doubled the price of a mobile phones to users and caused some analysts to halve their forecasts for this year's mobile phone sales in the country.
W-CDMA technology is an alternative standard produced by Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc. and European phone makers Nokia Oyj and Ericsson SpA. It is a derivative of the European global standard for mobile telecommunications, or GSM, which is used by over 60 percent of the world's mobile phone market.
The Korean government will announce next week how it will choose the companies who will provide the new services. It will receive applications for licenses in September and will make a decision by the end of the year.
In a plan presented at a public hearing yesterday, the Ministry of Information and Communication said it wants to award three licenses to companies chosen according to the quality of their business plans. It will charge each licensee between 1 trillion won ($890 million) and 1.3 trillion won.
The policy document also said the government will allow the companies themselves to choose which technology they will use. |
